A black conservative's place for independent thinking and common sense -- A little oasis for those who got caught up in the momentum of the civil rights movement, but failed to discern the false from the true

Sailer first goes into a long discussion about exit polls and immigration. He maintains that there is no need for Republicans to be concerned about losing segments of the Hispanic vote in the future, since the "widely assumed" notion that Hispanics are increasing in numbers is not true. Really? Along with this very questionable and unsubstantiated statement, Sailer asserts that Hispanic voters "don't care as much about illegal immigrants as their self-proclaimed leaders" contend.It is true that during this election, Hispanic/Latino notables were not out in full force for the Democrats' candidate, a yet unknown quantity to many. Yet, I think over the next couple of years, the Democrats will be certain to solidify their connections with the major Hispanic groups, and they will become part of a dependable political base. Those "self-proclaimed leaders," just like among blacks, are the ones who get the masses to follow the bandwagon. And once they have sent out the signals, and even secured some political perks targeted especially to benefit immigrant groups, there will be an irresistible drive towards the Democratic party.

Sailer suggests that, in this electoral cycle, the GOP should have taken a strong stand against illegal immigrants. Considering the new realities that will undoubtedly prevail in the future, it would be unwise to take such advice in the next election go-round. Let's face it, there simply are not enough Americans who will consistently back policies to lock down the borders or urge the enforcement of stiff immigration laws. The stouthearted ones who do are growing more marginal every day. They could not even count upon official support from the Republican party while that party was in charge of things. Immigration reformers are unlikely to have even negligible support from the Democrats.

Sailer's main emphasis is on the recruitment of the best political talent to run for office. In creating a hypothetical young businessman, who chooses to enter politics in the Republican fold, instead of as a Democrat, Sailer suggests that such a candidate must not hesitate to wage an assault on political correctness, and should refuse to play by the "McCain Rules." Instead, the candidate must forego the leftwing rules of "diversity sensitivity," which hampered McCain, and must "play to win."

Easy to say, isn't it? Just who among the Republican stalwarts would back up such a courageous candidate? Who among the Republicans have not imbibed just about every racial assumption and feminist tenet concocted by their supposed adversaries on the left? Most Republicans would not know how to begin to disentangle their minds from politically correct thinking, even while calling themselves "conservative." In fact, most do not seem aware that they have been transformed into politically correct robots. Just look at the Sarah Palin debacle for confirmation of this. (See here and here.)

About Sailer's hypothetical businessman, whom he describes as a "32-year-old white guy," who decides to join his political fortunes to the Republican party: Won't this person need to be vetted by those pro-life evangelicals, the very ones who rejected businessman Mitt Romney for his "incorrect" religion and wavering positions on abortion? Will this hypothetical, enterprising businessman be ready to commit, not only to this camp's unyielding position on abortion, but also be prepared to pledge his allegiance to the "correct" view of Jesus?

Or, is Sailer assuming a future Republican party that has been rescued from the clutches of the Religious Right by a Whitman/Collins/Snowe type of axis? If such a prospective candidate, as described by Sailer, should appear before said rescue has taken place, it's likely that, long before the mainstream media has a chance to put him through the woodchipper, the faithful Republican "base" will have killed him off with their own versions of political correctness and religious intolerance. Read more!

Monday, November 17, 2008

The liberal Katha Pollitt, writing in The Nation magazine (11/24/08), conveys what so many bewildered conservatives concluded during the Sarah Palin fiasco, that is, the Republicans' public acceptance of Palin's untidy family scene proves that "the feminism of everyday life is taking hold across the spectrum." Writing from her liberal perspective, Pollitt rejoices over this fact, and observes:

Palin's presence on the Republican ticket forced family-values conservatives to give public support to working mothers, equal marriages, pregnant teens and their much-maligned parents. Talk-show frothers, Christian zealots and professional antifeminists – Rush Limbaugh and Phyllis Schlafly – insisted that a mother of five, including a "special-needs" newborn, could perfectly well manage governing a state (a really big state, as we were frequently reminded), while simultaneously running for veep and, who knows, field-dressing a moose. No one said she belonged at home.

According to Pollitt, Palin was not only "God's gift" to Barack Obama, Katie Couric and Tina Fey, "she was also a gift to feminism." And Pollitt is right. Surely, until now, there has been no better demonstration of what feminism has wrought than the Palin reality show, buttressed by the masses of devotees she acquired in her brief, but tumultuous tenure as vice presidential candidate.

Palin's lifestyle was thoroughly acceptable to liberals and conservatives, suggests Pollitt, so much so that,

No one said she was neglecting her husband or failing to be appropriately submissive to him. No one blamed her for 17-year-old Bristol's out-of-wedlock pregnancy or hard-partying high-school-dropout boyfriend. No one even wondered out loud why Bristol wasn't getting married before the baby arrived.

There is no doubt, Pollitt emphasizes, that feminism, in moving across the social and political spectrum, has changed attitudes, and behavior once looked upon by many Americans as dysfunctional, even sinful, is becoming normalized. She apparently agrees with conservative writer Heather MacDonald, who has pointed out that, once certain principles have been compromised, "there will be no turning back." Pollitt proclaims:

All these things have officially morphed from sins to "challenges," just part of normal family life. No matter how strategic this newfound broadmindedness is, it will not be easy to row away from it. Thanks to Sarah, ladies, we can do just about anything we want as long as we don't have an abortion.

Pollitt offers a hearty thanks to Palin for helping to further the feminist-liberal cause, with the send-off, "So thanks, Sarah. And now, please – back to your iceberg."

However, it does not seem that Sarah is taking Pollitt's advice. In fact, she simply refuses to go away, and appears to be positioning herself for an even bolder role, by establishing herself as the de facto leader of a very damaged Republican party.

Thursday, November 06, 2008

No conservative did more railing against the Bush neocon administration than did Rev. Chuck Baldwin, right from its beginnings. Over and over, he expressed his indignation at those who called themselves "conservative" and "Christian," while supporting one of the ugliest and most un-Christian clans to ever get hold of this country's government. In his November 7, 2008 commentary, Baldwin writes, "Bush and his fellow neocons like to categorize and promote themselves as being 'pro-life,' but they have no hesitation or reservation about killing hundreds of thousands of innocent people in reckless and unconstitutional foreign wars. .... As a result of this insanely inconsistent and pixilated punditry, millions of Americans now laugh at the very notion of 'pro-life' conservatism. Bush and McCain have made a mockery of the very term."

How true. Who can ever again take the "pro-life" camp seriously?

And on finances, Baldwin says, "The American people look at these so-called 'conservatives' and laugh. No wonder such a sizeable majority of voters yawned when John McCain tried to scare them by accusing Barack Obama of being a 'big taxer.' How can one possibly scare people with a charge like that after the GOP has made a total mockery of fiscal conservatism? That's like trying to scare someone coming out from a swim in the Gulf of Mexico with a squirt gun."

All that business about "redistributing the wealth" was truly ridiculous. As if taxpayers' money wasn't regularly distributed among the Bush gang.

"Across the country," continues Baldwin, "rather than stand on principle, hundreds of thousands of pastors, Christians, and pro-life conservatives capitulated and groveled before John McCain's neocon agenda. In doing so, they forfeited any claim to truth, and they abandoned any and all fidelity to constitutional government."

What we have learned throughout these last eight years is that, among these Republicans, who call themselves "conservative," there is not even a pretense to recognition of the Constitution. It's now a given that this is an antiquated document with no relevance to our lives today. Liberals and conservatives call upon the Constitution only when they think they can cause some form of destruction to their political adversaries.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

TV contributing to teen pregnancy! - Sex on TV Increases Teen Pregnancy! - Racy TV shows switch teenagers on to sex! - Study Links TV Sex to Real Teen Pregnancies! - the headlines blare. Are they for real? We haven't known this all along? What does it take to connect the dots? Look at what's been brewing over the last three decades -- a cynical, out-of-control entertainment media allied with an irresponsible education system, each of which hypes sex to children from the earliest ages, and screeching "pro-lifers" who romanticize the thrill and "heroism" of giving birth -- and we see what teenage girls are up against. Thank you for nothing, Ms. Palin

Loss of the Issues & Views website

Due to the fact that the owners of the company that has hosted Issues & Views - The Website, since its creation in 1997, have decided to host only sites in Alaska, the website linked to this blog is probably lost.

Issues & Views - The Website (www.issues-views.com) contained hundreds of articles first printed in the hard copy Issues & Views newsletter (1983 through 2002), along with newer articles composed in the 1990s.

Although the former host has re-directed clicks to the website to this blog, it does not appear that there will be any rescue of the website's files or database. For this reason, surfers looking for issues-views.com are landing on this blog. (The website is currently being cached by Google.)

I have learned that an archived version of the website is available on Wayback Machine. Unfortunately, this last capture was performed in 2008, so it lacks certain minor deletions and editing done in 2009 and 2010. However, anyone searching for a particular article should be able to find it there.

- Elizabeth (issues@issues.cnc.net)

Racism is not "sin"

Over the years, as whites have worked to defend themselves against the charge of "racism," they have validated this slur by giving it greater importance than it deserves, and thereby helped to institutionalize it as the world's greatest "sin." As to genuine sin, harboring negative thoughts concerning some group is much further down the list of human deficiencies than bombing Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden and Hamburg, or hacking to death with machetes the men, women and children of an enemy tribe. Now, those are sins! Seeking to force "diversity" down the throats of an unreceptive segment of society is the religious mission of rabid, agenda-driven ideologues. None of this apparent concern for "social justice" has ever been about virtue. It's about power.

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Jacobs and Potter on the un-American nature of "hate crime" legislation.